Media Flaws

“Perhaps I was never really an ardent fan” was a thought that kept  gulling up repetitively as I sat through what seemed like an entire, 50 year-long lifetime of Michael Jackson’s This Is It. I couldn’t believe I was literally watching juxtaposed shots of a man rehearsing, who at times kept on saying he was “preserving” his voice – hence he couldn’t give an all out rendition of himself and kept on asking for breaks, lowered tempos to let things “simmer.”

For chrissake where is creativity when it’s most needed? 90% of that movie is Michael lugubriously sliding across the stage to the beats of his old songs, with some newly casted dancers trying to resuscitate him to his old stage presence. Perhaps it would have been more genius to capture moments in which Michael was speaking, conversing or directing others. Look I know Michael isn’t one to unravel the best film noir – but at least his past films had storylines as much as they were simply just extended music videos.

The trouble with the director, Kenny Ortega, is that he fails to realise that where Michael most engages his audience, besides the singing, is in dialogue. Michael’s voice alone reveals a certain frailty, child-likeness, perfectionist nature where music is concerned yet reflects an austere command of the English language. Plus there is something captivating about hearing Michael speak, except for when he consistently says "God Bless You" or "I Love You" to everything; hearing Michael construct sentences and articulating his inner-most ideas clearly provides a new perspective on Michael the man. My ramble can be placed into context upon listening closely to some of his lyrics in his hit songs. There are messages of an uncanny wisdom there. Gems. I’m pretty sure in and around the shooting of these rehearsals Michael had a lot to say - he might have even lost his temper, been heavily critical or just plain old Michael. But we’ll never know, that wasn’t included you see?

Song after song it kept coming. Popcorn after popcorn I counted. I even started to look out for weird unintended plots. Realised Michael was wearing the same pair of shoes throughout the rehearsals (okay, maybe it wasn’t but it was still those moccasins of yesteryear). I even noted that Ed Hardy tracksuit pants were punted for a solid 5 minutes. Guess jeans were also solidly sold. Yes, you know a docu-film is boring when such observations can be made. But popcorn after popcorn it was. Now the irony of showing these rehearsals is that they confirmed something was wrong with Michael - healthwise. Never have I ever seen his dance routines so lazily performed. It felt like routine.

I don’t know. Maybe I wasn’t quite really a Michael Jackson fan. Maybe after all these years of collecting his music, mimicking his dance moves, belching out his songs as a child to entertain grown-ups; I just wasn’t really a fan. Perhaps an admirer of talent. And it took Kenny Ortega to make me realise I just don’t derive any joy in seeing heavily edited rehearsals. Perhaps a narrative contructed from parts of Michael's life, acting and a small glimpse of This Is It rehearsals would have been better. If anything makes the movie worth the R150 (price for opening morning only – 3am) it would have to be the emotive baggage of knowing that the auteur’s rehearsals were his last.